It’s Fine To Write About The Same Topic Multiple Times Over

You don’t run the risk of duplicate content.

As I was writing my article, “How To Escape Perfectionism And Publish More,” I stumbled upon an issue that blocked me from writing a lot in the past.

I first started blogging on WordPress. I was doing things differently from what I am doing on Medium as I focused on search engine optimization (SEO). One common practice was to write big “pillar” posts and link everything together.

Pillar posts restricted my ability to write and publish many articles because I was in the mentality of “this is the only post I will write on this topic.”

I carried that mentality into Medium. In the first few months, I could publish a lot of blog posts. But as time passed, I stopped publishing as many because I couldn’t find enough “new” ideas.

What I found out, however, is that it’s okay to write about the same topic, same story, and same morals again as long as you don’t copy-paste your former articles. This realization broke my publishing restrictions, and I started writing and publishing a lot more.

Perspectives Change With The Addition Of Knowledge And Experience

What you once thought may not equal what you will always believe. Over time, as you experience things and add to your knowledge, your perspective on specific topics and experiences will change.

This also means what you once wrote will not always hold steadfast into the future. You may find you have more to add to what you once wrote. Or you might see yourself changing your opinion entirely with the addition of new knowledge.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post called, “Why I Stopped Publishing As Often Since Taking The Medium Mastery Course.” I talked about how I was trying to write quality posts and spent more time on every article.

But just a few weeks ago, I changed. My lack of published posts frustrated me. As I was thinking about how to write more, I realized that I often didn’t write because I thought my blog posts weren’t good enough. That train of thought led me back to a conversation in a Medium writing Slack channel about curation. The writers talked about how they never know which blog posts will get curated, and they’re often surprised when their “poorly” written blog posts outperform their “refined” posts.

That’s when I learned that I don’t determine if my blog post is good enough; my readers do. And it’s easier to see what my readers like and dislike if I have more data, which equates to publishing more.

All of this led to me writing a blog post titled, “Quantity Over Quality When Blogging On Medium,” where my opinion on writing more versus writing better completely switched from before.

Sometimes, instead of a switch in opinions, I have more to add to existing ideas. This usually happens when I try to give advice. Typically, the advice holds for a long time, but I have more to add to the original advice after learning more. It’s usually more manageable to write a new blog post instead of editing an old one.

The Same Moral, Different Stories

When we write, we usually write about some moral or lesson and use stories/data to back ourselves up. If I write about how patience pays off in blogging, I might talk about how one of my WordPress blogs has generated side income passively.

I could also talk about how my earnings on Medium have grown over time. If I consistently blog for even longer, I could expect my Medium earnings to increase drastically. But I don’t know that.

If I do wait even longer and see my income skyrocket, then restricting the idea I write about based on if I have already written on it would be stupid. I already have articles that talk about how patience pays off. Waiting longer and seeing the earnings go even higher would be an even better example of how patience pays off.

We often have and will have many experiences that support the same idea. Instead of trying to fit it all in one go, it’s okay to write multiple posts on the same topic with different experiences supporting it.

The Same Story, Different Morals

Similarly, something could happen to you, and you can use it for multiple different ideas.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog post called, “My Parents Crush Every Dream I Have.” As the title suggests, it was about how my parents pull me down from reaching my goals.

In the blog post, I wrote it in the context of parenting and supporting others, but it could fit in different contexts too. One different context is self-improvement and motivation. I could write another blog post with the same story focused on how I push myself to reach my goals without anybody supporting me.

You can always see your stories through different lenses, so make use of all of them.

Repetition And Duplicate Content Issues

Two issues I would like to address are repetition and duplicate content problems. If I write about the same thing multiple times, wouldn’t it get repetitive for my readers? Would I get a duplicate content penalty?

First, you wouldn’t get a duplicate content penalty as long as you’re not copy-pasting old content into your new posts. As long as you write from scratch, you’ll be totally fine.

As for the potential repetition issue, most people won’t find you repetitive.

Most people do not read all of your blog posts. You might think that you wrote about a particular topic a ton already, but for some people, that might be the first time they’re reading about that topic from you.

Personally, I like repetition. Even though it’s the same idea, there’s always something new. Additionally, I understand something best after someone, or multiple people, tell me the same thing numerous times.

For example, hearing about how you should learn from your failures once doesn’t help me. But after hearing about it over ten times, it’s finally ingrained in my head, and I start actively learning from my failures.

Writing More Is How You Get Better At Writing

It’s fine to write about the same topic multiple times over. By knowing this, you’re less susceptible to perfectionism and more likely to publish more blog posts. Just knowing this has helped me write and publish nearly triple the amount I usually do.

By writing and publishing more, you’ll get better at writing. You’ll also earn more money. Ultimately, to be the best, we need the mindset of being better, and writing more is how we can be better no matter what we write about.